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Fed Chairman Blunt, Yet Optimistic; Paying the Bills; Saving our Schools; High Seas Harassment; The 4-1-1- About Your Money; A Walk in Space; Church All A-Twitter; Tracking Energy Use; From Bangles to Bucks

Aired March 10, 2009 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hello there, everybody. Tony Harris is off today. I'm T.J. Holmes, sitting in for him here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Here are your headlines for this Tuesday, March 10th.

It is a rally. Blue chips surge three to four percent, and we will take it this morning. And it's led by, would you believe, bank stocks?

We will explain this.

Also, halfway through his first 100 days, the president talking about education today. Longer school days for kids? Say it ain't so.

Also, new rewards for good schoolteachers. That's a good thing.

And Washington's golden boy. Is the luster now off the Treasury secretary? Is he having to reassure Democrats?

All right. The Fed chairman is talking, everybody's listening.

Ben Bernanke made two main points today when he spoke before the Council on Foreign Relations. For the financial crisis to ease, he says the patchwork of laws regulating our financial system must undergo a major overhaul. The second point he had to make, he says big banks have to get back on their feet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: My forecasting record on this recession is about the same as the win/loss record of the Washington Nationals. It has surprised us in being more severe than anticipated, but again, I think the main lesson that's been learned is how powerful and how pervasive these financial market effects can be.

But -- so the way I would phrase my answer would be to say that it depends critically on our ability to get the banking system, and the financial system, more broadly, not necessarily back to 2005, but back to a situation where the markets are reasonably stable and they can perform their critical function of providing credit to the economy. If we can do that, then I think that there is a good chance that the recession will end later this year, and that 2010 will be a period of growth. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: OK. Let me go ahead and bring in our Christine Romans in New York.

Christine, I need some kind of Bernanke-to-English dictionary oftentimes when I hear him speak. However, everybody's listening and he is trying to -- or a lot of people in the financial markets, at least, a lot of people on Wall Street, are trying to get some kind of optimism from what he's saying.

What did he say today, who was his message for, and how is that message going to be received?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, Wall Street is happy today. Clearly, there is a feeling of -- a sense of stability in the financial sector, and there is a sense that this administration is going to do everything it can to keep the banks alive. He basically said that.

He is talking about the fact that we have to fix the banking sector, but he was talking about when he also sees a recovery. And he said that if all the prescriptions go through, T.J., that we'll see a recovery maybe the beginning -- beginning of a recovery at the end of this year, and some kind of a period of growth in 2010. And that was something that people like to hear.

HOLMES: OK. But you talked there about what they like to hear. They'd like to hear it today.

How can we have a sustained confidence? You know what I mean? I mean, this is just one day, and the markets look good and everybody's feeling great, but what are they going to feel like tomorrow, and the next day, the next day?

ROMANS: Well, and the big "if" here is if he can get the prescriptions -- the government can get the prescriptions through and they can work, then we will see this recovery that's going forward, of course. He is talking also about making sure that things -- this doesn't happen again, that we have better financial oversight, better regulation of all of this. As you said, patchwork of regulations right now.

We have -- you know, I think he called it a macroprudential approach, which kind of blew me away. And I guess in Bernanke...

HOLMES: OK. Then it wasn't just me then. OK.

ROMANS: Bernanke to our English, that means we need regulation that looks at the mutual funds, that looks at the banks, that looks at the insurance companies, that looks at all of these things that are so tight into the global economy. And we watch them to make sure if they're taking on too much risk, we don't let that happen so that this doesn't happen again.

HOLMES: All right. My translator, Christine Romans. ROMANS: Macroprudential, I know, I had to look that one up. That's a real -- that's a tough one.

HOLMES: We were talking about that in the NEWSROOM.

ROMANS: Yes.

HOLMES: Nobody had any idea.

All right. Interesting. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.

We'll turn to Timothy Geithner now.

Democrat losing faith in the treasury secretary? He had to spend two hours with Democrats behind closed doors on Capitol Hill trying to soothe their financial about his financial fix. Now, blogs and many others out there are starting to question Geithner.

You know, he's studious, but sometimes he has a halting approach to the crisis. One says his tactic is three-pronged -- delay, delay, delay -- instead of making the hard choices.

We'll turn now to that big spending bill.

The Senate may have a final vote today on the $410 billion spending plan. It covers government operations through September. The problem here is that Republicans are holding Democrats' feet to the fire over 8,00 or so earmarks. Yes, that stuff we all call pork.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), MINORITY LEADER: And I've asked the president to veto this bill. He promised to veto these spending bills where you have all these earmarks on it. And this bill, if it gets through the Senate, ought to be vetoed by the president. He can't -- he and his staff can't use this line, well, that was last year's business and we're just going to kind of let it go by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. Our Brianna Keilar up on Capitol Hill, where all this pork is being talked about.

You're in the middle of the barbecue up there. But we hear Republicans coming out talking about all this pork. However, this isn't just Democratic pork here.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's bipartisan pork, T.J.

HOLMES: Yes.

KEILAR: It is. Yes, of these 8,500 earmarks in this $410 billion spending bill, about 40 percent of them are Republican earmarks, requests for federal funding for local and state projects. That's not the only issue though here. There is also the issue of the overall price tag. As I said, $410 billion. That's an eight percent increase in spending.

Some conservative Democrats, along with Republicans, say it's too much right on the heels of that massive stimulus plan. At the same time, though, Senate Democratic leaders think it's likely this will pass when it comes to a vote later this afternoon. It's expected to be a squeaker, probably 60 votes, not much Republican support. But because Democrats do need a few Republican votes, they allowed them the chance to voice their concerns and make -- propose, at least, some amendments.

Democrats don't want these amendments to pass, they don't want to make any changes. However, T.J., that's part of the reason why Republicans have put some issues out there that are tough votes, difficult for Democrats to say no to, but Democrats don't want to make any changes, so they kind of find themselves boxed into a corner there.

HOLMES: OK. I don't want to box you into a corner here. I see you're having a few issues with your earpiece.

KEILAR: I'm good now. I'm good.

HOLMES: You're good. You're all right now. We can keep chatting.

All right. A lot of those proposals on the minutes and votes you're talking about here, one of them is getting a lot of attention, Congress. It would force them to vote on an annual pay raise each year instead of getting it automatically.

Now, does anybody like this plan up there on the Hill?

KEILAR: Well, this is one of those really tough votes. This is being proposed, this amendment, by Republican from Louisiana David Vitter.

The way it works right now is that Congress gets an automatic pay raise. The last one they got, $4,700. That put their salaries to $174,000 a year.

Well, Senator Vitter's amendment, if it were to pass -- and it's possible it won't, but it's still a bit of a question mark -- would force Congress to vote every year. And you can imagine how unpopular that would be, T.J., to go on the record every year for these politicians and say, hey, you know what, I'm going to vote to give myself more money? And that's really the point of it. It is a tough situation to be in.

HOLMES: Boy, we would carry that vote live every single year.

KEILAR: Oh, we would.

HOLMES: Brianna Keilar, thank you for making it through your IFB, or earpiece, issues there..

KEILAR: You bet.

HOLMES: Thank you so much there on the Hill.

Of course, President Obama reaching the midway point in his first 100 days in office. That makes today day 50.

He's off to a fast, ambitious start. And he's tackled the economy, war, health care, and today education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK H. OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens. And my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to that be nation.

We have the best universities, the most renowned scholars. We have innovative principals and passionate teachers and gifts students. And we have parents whose only priority is their child's education.

We have a legacy of excellence and an unwavering belief that our children should climb higher than we did. And yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we've let our grades slip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux now live from the White House.

Well, everybody, all of us, could have benefited from getting our grades a little higher, but...

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You were a straight A student, T.J., I'm sure.

HOLMES: Wow. Yes. We should talk.

Suzanne, look, what is he proposing to do? How are we going to get our kids now back on par with the highest performing countries in the world?

MALVEAUX: Sure. One of the things he stressed was early education, and specifically expanding head start programs by $5 billion. This is for 150,000 or so kids.

And then he also talked about the need for expanded adult education, that there are jobs that are basically going to disappear and that you need to retrain. So he is talking about $2.5 billion to support initiatives for higher education and training programs for adults.

And then, a controversial proposal here, it's something he talked about on the campaign, and that's the idea here of rewarding high- performing teachers, expanding this merit pay system to about 150 additional school districts. This is not something that went over well with the teachers unions during the campaign. It is probably something they're going to fight this time around, but he is defending that, saying he believes that teachers should be held accountable in that way.

And then, finally, he's talking about expanding charter schools, after-school programs. He said, interesting enough, that our country -- our kids don't spend as much time in school as even the kids in South Korea. So he wants to make those school days longer. He said, T.J., it's not something that Sasha and Malia would approve of, he said, but he thought it was necessary.

HOLMES: Yes, Sasha, Malia or any other student out there. A lot of students probably wish that they could vote in the next election since he's trying to increase the school day.

But let's move on here to -- we know this is the midway point -- it's funny to say midway point of the 100 days, but, still, a report card on this 50-day mark. A lot of others out there are talking. You've got analysts, bloggers, everybody talking about it, but what does the White House think of their first 50 days?

MALVEAUX: Well, they actually think that they have done a pretty good job in terms of laying out a lot on the table. They like to call it, you know, putting it all on the grill there, that they can do more than one thing at a time.

Clearly, there is some concern, however, that there are some supporters who are saying this might be too much to really be effective. That's why you saw the president dispatch his treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, to the Hill to tell them, look, you've got to be patient here, we are looking at the economic crisis, we're dealing with this, but we also want to put our mark on this administration, we want to do it very quickly.

That's what you are seeing. And obviously, T.J., we know it's just going to be a matter of time to see whether or not all of this comes to fruition and whether or not they're really successful.

HOLMES: All right. Well, we will see. Maybe see you back on day 60, 70, and 80 and 90.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I'll be here.

HOLMES: I know you will.

A fine student herself, Suzanne Malveaux.

Thank you so much. Always good to see you.

Well, a lesson in school reform from college students. One of our iReporters wanted to find out what his peers were saying about the state of education in the U.S. Here's his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all the talk over the stimulus bill and the budget deficit, how is K through 12 education being affected? And what are millennials doing to shape the debate? Let's take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a very talked about topic, I don't think. I never really hear it come up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people don't know this, like inequalities that you see with the education system.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like there's a big difference in education for inner-city schools than, like, (INAUDIBLE) schools.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have any experience with inner-city schools, but I hear they're pretty low on funding. And I don't see how that's fair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And you, too, can sound off about schools or any of the other headlines. Send us your comments, send us your videos, our iReporters, to ireport.com.

Well, it is a scene right out of the Great Depression. We'll show you where this tent city is growing right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is taking some heat for not being able to show a clear path out of the nation's recession. Geithner met with Democrats in a closed session last night, urging them to be patient.

Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings was at that meeting.

Representative Cummings, is your patience growing thin, however?

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: No. I think that Secretary Geithner has a very big job. He's treading and trying to swim in uncharted waters, and so I think we need to have some patience with him. And he's an extremely bright secretary, and I think that he's on course to get us in the right direction.

HOLMES: Can we afford patience right now? The president has urged expediency on this issue, on the economy. We don't have time to waste. So do we have time for that much more patience with this secretary?

CUMMINGS: Well, we have to move fast, but we also have to get it right. And I think one of the things that the secretary is trying to do -- and he made this clear last night -- is not only is he trying to stabilize our economy, but he's also trying to make it so that it is better when all of these problems are over.

And so I think that he's on the right course. But another thing you've got to remember is that this is like a moving tart, and here, this administration has been in, and you just talked about it, 50 days. That's not a very long time.

HOLMES: Not a long time.

CUMMINGS: And so they are constantly -- and they're dealing with -- I mean, just dealing with AIG alone would keep most treasury secretaries busy 24 hours a day. And so he's trying to get the banks to lend, he's dealing with foreclosures. I mean -- and trying to make sure that students are getting loans and things of that nature.

So I think he's doing a very good job, and I think we're going to have to have some patience. Keep in mind that a lot of the people standing on the sidelines throwing spitballs at him are people who were very patient with President Bush.

HOLMES: OK.

CUMMINGS: And you see what we got. So maybe they just need to be a little bit more patient with him, and he'll get there.

HOLMES: I want you to listen to something. Our viewers as well. We're going to lighten it up here a bit, but it does make a point.

I want you to take a listen to this. I'm going to ask you about it on the other side.

CUMMINGS: Sure.

HOLMES: Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Earlier today, I proposed that the federal Treasury set aside $420 billion. This $420 billion will be placed in a special fund and will go to the first individual who comes up with a workable plan to solve this banking crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

HOLMES: Now, we're taking a lighter approach. That was from "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, doing a little imitation of Timothy Geithner. But is that our issue? How much of this is that, you know, Timothy Geithner was criticized when he came out, that big unveiling, everybody's on the edge of their seat, and then they got nothing.

Is this the issue maybe we're up against now? And that was put in a funny way, but still, is that the point, we don't have a good plan we can present to the Americans that they can understand, and to get confidence going and get the economy going?

CUMMINGS: I think one of the reasons why Secretary Geithner came out with his original speech the way he did was because he was still trying to make sure that he was on the right course. And I'm telling you, as I have studied these problems, they are humongous. And I think that basically what he wanted to do was be careful, put something out there that made sense, and something that he did not -- he would not have to go back on. He made that clear to us several days ago. He doesn't want to put a plan out there and then have to come right back and say, you know what? This is the wrong thing.

And so I think he's on the right course. I have full confidence in him. I'm 100 percent behind him. And I think he's going to do us well.

HOLMES: Well, let me ask you this question. He has 17 top deputies, assistant secretaries and deputies, positions he needs to fill. They haven't been filled.

This man has essentially been, for all intents and purposes, working alone, working 20-hour days to try to get this done. He has advisers all around him, but none of them have any authority to make decisions for the government. He's doing this on his own.

How much are you concerned about the fact that this vetting process has become so stringent and being put under such a microscope, that he can't fill these top positions in a department that needs help?

CUMMINGS: Well, I agree with former treasury -- Federal Reserve chairman Volcker when he said that these are very difficult positions to fill.

First of all, you've got -- this is one of most complex financial problems our nation has faced, ever. Then you've got people who are already making a lot of money, who would then have to take a pay cut. Then we have this extensive vetting. And then we have people like you who are looking at every single thing that these folks have done since they were 6 years old.

HOLMES: Just doing my job. Just doing my job.

CUMMINGS: No, I'm not complaining. But I'm just saying, that's -- so in the end, have what I call the Obama standard.

The president has made it clear he wants the very, very best people to tackle a very difficult problem, o it's going to take some time. But I do know that we've got people in the pipeline, and as the Senate moves on and the vetting takes place, those people will be in place. But we also want to have the right people in place to deal with this very difficult problem.

HOLMES: All right. And like you said, Representative Cummings, you felt a little bit better when you came out of that meeting.

CUMMINGS: Oh, yes. The more I'm talking to you, I'm feeling more and more better.

HOLMES: Well, I wish we could keep talking, but I'll have to leave you alone to deal with your emotions now.

(LAUGHTER)

CUMMINGS: All right.

HOLMES: Representative Cummings, sir, good to see you. Appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. See you down the road. All right?

CUMMINGS: All right. Bye-bye.

HOLMES: All right. We're going to turn now back to a lot of these horror stories. It just seems like there's no end to the stories that are being created by the sagging economy.

Families now in Sacramento, California, reduced to pitching tents in open fields to have a place to sleep. It's a growing tent city that's bursting at the seams with thousands of laid-off workers.

Our Dan Simon with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We recently spent an afternoon in the outskirts of Sacramento, in an area you might call "Tent City." It has been there for about a year, and it's a very vast area. About 300 tents are there, and about 10 percent of them -- 10 percent of them are filled with people who are newly homeless. In other words, these are people who had jobs, people who had homes, and now find themselves homeless, living in a tent.

(voice-over): One is 50-year-old Jim Gibson. He's a construction worker and says he cannot find work. He said he made about $45,000 a year, but then home building and construction slowed. Gibson downsized first from a house, and then to an apartment. And when the recession stopped construction all together, he ran out of money.

JIM GIBSON, UNEMPLOYED CONSTRUCTION WORKER: So it's kind of a mess. I didn't clean it this morning.

SIMON: Now he lives here, in a 3 x 6 tent.

GIBSON: The only thing I can really say about my situation is that I am not the only one out here. There's a lot of people that are homeless because they choose to be. But I'm not one of those.

We don't want to be out here. All we ask for is basically to be given a chance and given a job, or work situation, and just let us take it from there and take care of ourselves.

SIMON: Gibson's wife died 12 years ago. He has five grown children, but he won't tell them he's here. He's too embarrassed, he says.

And just a little ways away, another new resident in this tent city, 50-year-old Tina Garland. She was a construction truck driver and the work is gone. Her husband is also not working. They pitched their tent here 11 months ago. TINA GARLAND, TENT CITY RESIDENT: It's so scary because you look at the economy and see that we're already out here. You know? I mean, we can't go a whole lot farther down. But we're going to be joined by hundreds, thousands of people, because they're losing their houses, and after the shelters run out, then they're going to be out here like we are.

SIMON (on camera): We did hear with one success story. A person living there in "Tent City" got a job at a local bowling alley and was able to save enough money and get himself an apartment.

Meanwhile, you might ask why those folks are not living in a homeless shelter. Well, there is a good reason for that. There are only 2,000 beds for homeless people in Sacramento. And they're all full.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right.

Well, the problem of homelessness taking a toll on the country's children as well. The toll being told in a new government study.

It says that one in 50 children in this country will experience homelessness at some point this year. That's about 1.5 million kids. Most of them minorities.

Here's a state-by-state breakdown, each one ranked by the extent of homelessness, child well being, and risk.

Texas at its worst in terms of homeless children, followed then by Georgia and Arkansas. Meanwhile, the best states, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Hawaii.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Well, a confrontation at sea to tell you about. The relationship between the U.S. and China getting a bit tense out there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: U.S. Navy officials are reporting a showdown with China on the high seas. An unarmed American Navy ship squaring off against five Chinese vessels in international waters. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence now explains. This happened while they were on a data gathering mission in the South China Sea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunday in the South China Sea, the Pentagon says a Chinese naval intelligence ship and four other vessels aggressively blocked the American ship Impeccable. One close to within 2,500 feet and ordered the Navy's ship to leave. When the Impeccable asked for a safe path out of the area, two boats cut it off and forced an emergency stop and the Navy says the Chinese sailors dropped pieces of wood in the Impeccable's path. The Pentagon calls it "one of the most aggressive actions we've seen in some time." And the Obama administration has protested the Chinese's actions.

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're going to continue to operate in those international waters and we expect the Chinese to observe international law around there.

LAWRENCE: Analysts say this could be a test to the new administration. And the Chinese will be focusing less on words than what American ships actually do at sea.

JAMES CARAFANO, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: If we back off on the right of navigation, if we give in to bullying, the Chinese will interpret that as a real signal of weakness.

LAWRENCE: This incident happened in international waters. But China regards almost all of the South China Sea as its territory. The Impeccable is not a combat ship, but it does gather data for anti- submarine warfare and a Pentagon official says they have heard reports that China does not like these survey ships in the area.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. So a bank gets bailed out by the government. Is that bank still a safe place to get a mortgage? We'll get the 4-1- 1 about maybe a 9-1-1 and your money from Gerri Willis at "The Help Desk."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, should you steer clear of a mortgage with a bank getting bailed out by the government? And what can you do about rising interest rates on your credit cards? Let's now get the 4-1-1 on your money from personal finance editor Gerri Willis. GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We want to get you answers to your financial questions. Let's go straight to The Help Desk. Manisha Thakor is a personal finance expert and the author of "On My Own Two Feet." John Simons is senior personal financed editor with "Black Enterprise" magazine. And David Bach is the author of "Fight for Your Money."

The first question comes from James who says, "I received changes to two of my credit cards, switching from very low fixed rates to variable rates amounting to a 57 percent and 130 percent increase. Outrageous! They give time to reject the increases, but will the rejection hurt my credit score?" - David.

DAVID BACH, AUTHOR, "FIGHT FOR YOUR MONEY": It depends. I mean, look, if the person has credit cards and they're not using them, they can keep the account open. What difference does the interest rate make.

If he's got debt and he's got a high interest rate, well then obviously he wants the lowest interest rate possible. There's two things he can do. He can ppt out. He can call the company and see if they'll give him the lower rate. Just because they sent you the notice doesn't mean that's the only deal you can get.

The third thing is, you can transfer the debt to a low interest rate credit card. I got 10 offers for low interest rate credit cards in the last two weeks. So the banks are still offering these teaser rates and they're available to you.

WILLIS: And that is ammunition.

All right. Next question. The writer is anonymous. "We currently have a fixed rate mortgage at 6.6 percent and are working with a broker for a fixed rate mortgage at 4.5 percent that will reduce our term by 15 years. The broker is looking at Citibank. Should we wait to refinance until the banks are more solvent? Should we specifically avoid Citibank?"

John, it's a great question.

JOHN SIMONS, SENIOR PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR, "BLACK ENTERPRISE": I don't think you should avoid Citibank. They are still a going concern. They're looking for customers. They're looking to retain their present customers. If someone takes them over, someone will take over their business.

I think what makes Citi attractive right now is that they've recently instituted this program where they will allow people who lose their jobs to reduce their mortgage payments by $500 a month. They're clearly doing things to attract and keep customers. So I wouldn't steer clear of them at all.

WILLIS: Manisha, this one's for you. Joshua asks, "we already e-filed our 2008 taxes and are going to be purchasing a home within the next few months. We are first time buyers, so when will the $8,000 tax credit come back to us? Will this change the interest rate deductions made on our mortgage?"

MANISHA THAKOR, AUTHOR, "ON MY OWN TWO FEET": Three quick things, all good news. First of all, it runs from January 1st to December 1st, not 31st. Second, it's a credit. So a dollar for dollar reduction.

WILLIS: We love that.

THAKOR: Huge. Third, it does not affect your ability to benefit from the mortgage interest deductions so long as you itemize your taxes.

WILLIS: Oh, we're big fans of itemizing.

All right. Well, guys, great answers to tough questions.

The Help Desk is all about getting you answers. Send me an e- mail to gerri@cnn.com or log on to cnnmoney.com/helpdesk to see more of our financial solutions. And, of course, The Help Desk is everywhere. Make sure to check out the latest issue of "Money" magazine on newsstands now.

HOLMES: All right. Well, looky, looky, looky. A bit of a rally this morning in the first three hours of trading on Wall Street. The Dow up 300 points. And would you believe the banks are leading the way right now? Citigroup actually reported that the first two months of the year were profitable. That possibly led a bit of a rally. A lot of banks are up. B of A, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, all up right about now. The Nasdaq up about 76 points as well. We are keeping a close eye on it.

We always keep a close eye on billionaire Warren Buffett. And when he talks, just about everybody out there listens. And right now he is saying he's still confident that America's best days are ahead. However, he has cautioned that we should be approaching this with a worst case scenario.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: The economy, ever since we talked in September, we talked about it being an economic Pearl Harbor and how what was happening in the financial world would move over to the real world very quickly. It's fallen off a cliff. And not only has the economy slowed down a lot, people have really changed their behavior like nothing I've ever seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, "fallen off a cliff" and "economic Pearl Harbor." Buffett says America's leaders near to clear up the confusion to restore confidence and get behind President Obama's attempt to fix things.

We will turn now to Bernie Madoff. He's expected to be in court later this afternoon. The former Nasdaq chair is accused of running a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars. Madoff might have something to say possibly at today's event. But this is just a warm-up to Thursday's hearing when Madoff is expected to enter a plea. At least 25 investors have signaled they want to speak at that hearing on Thursday when he does enter a plea.

Well, we all need new ideas to get through this economic mess. And some are looking back to those who lived through the Great Depression. At 91 years young, this woman is thriving and her insight could help you. What do you want to ask her? E-mail us your questions at cnnnewsroom.com.

Well, stepping out in space. We're watching some spacewalking astronauts coming up this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: OK, Jacqui, we had to bring you in to help me out on this one. Trying to figure out -- OK, all I know is there's a spacewalk going on.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There is a spacewalk going on. HOLMES: All right. Now exactly what they're doing is anybody's guess. No, no, OK . . .

JERAS: No, they have a mission.

HOLMES: They have a mission.

JERAS: Yes.

HOLMES: Let's explain as well. There's a little movement you can see in the back.

JERAS: Oh, there you can see them, finally. Yes. They're kind of working behind those panels that you see there. There's two of them out there actually.

HOLMES: Yes.

JERAS: And I hope I'm pronouncing these correctly. Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yuri Lonchakov.

HOLMES: They can't hear you.

JERAS: Pardon me?

HOLMES: They can't hear you. You're OK.

JERAS: They -- I know. I know. But their friends and family can.

HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE).

JERAS: I don't want to offend them.

Anyway, this is a six-hour spacewalk. What they're trying to do is they're installing something called expose-r. And this is basically some European equipment that helps expose seeds and spores into the space environment. And so they want to find out, you know, if things like solar UV radiation and long-term exposure to space conditions, what it's going to do to that.

Basically they tried doing this back in December but they had some cable problems. So they're back at it today and trying to do it again.

HOLMES: And this is supposed to take about six hours. Now looking at this, it doesn't look that exciting. But, still, this is . . .

JERAS: Come on! It's space, T.J.!

HOLMES: This is some serious stuff. You're right. No, that's the point.

JERAS: How exciting that? You should be 200 to 215 miles above the earth? HOLMES: To each his own. But I was just saying . . .

JERAS: He didn't like my ice video either. What's wrong with you today?

HOLMES: No. No, no, no, no. But for our viewers who are just looking at that and wondering what in the world's going on, it might not look like a lot is happening, but, yes, that is space, as you said, 200 plus miles above.

JERAS: Right.

HOLMES: And we just got a bad shot right now because they're on the other side and you can't really see them. But they're there.

JERAS: And everything's so delicate, you know, T.J. and they've got all that equipment on it. It's really a very difficult thing to do something like this.

HOLMES: It is.

Well, I wonder if they're Twittering from space. Do you Twitter, Jacqui?

JERAS: You know, I'm just getting started. I signed up my account. I have like, you know, 15 people following me. So follow me on Twitter. I'm going to do -- try to do a better job of doing updates

HOLMES: They are just getting all of us here at CNN with our Twitter accounts and whatnot. But the question now you're going to be asked, after you get up and going, is are your tweets green, Jacqui?

JERAS: Green?

HOLMES: There's something called a tweet watch and it shows your friends just how much or little electricity you're using. Yes, you're only being followed by 15. So they're not getting on to you just yet, but they're coming for you, see if your tweets are green.

JERAS: I try to be very green. So hopefully that will be reflected.

HOLMES: All right. We're coming up -- we'll talk about green tweets coming up. Stay with us, folks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Well, you go to church, what do you expect? Prayers? Hymns? Sermons? But one pastor found something else to send his congregation into a Twitter. Deborah Feldman with our affiliate KING explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey how are you? Good to see you. Hi, there.

DEBORAH FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Marshall church in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood is not your grandma's church. On this Sunday, the pastor's sermon is being broadcast on large video screens to accommodate his laryngitis and the congregants in church, well, they're on their iphones. They're not talking, but they are twittering, typing in brief thoughts or messages for their friends to read and in real time.

KYLE FIRSTENBERG, MARS HILL CHURCH: How does the service impact them, what does worship feel like to them? And it's a good way for them to kind of tell their friends what church is about without their friends even coming into the building.

FELDMAN: Twittering goes on throughout the entire service with the messages or tweaks popping up on FaceBook pages or on the church's official Twitter page.

MIKE ANDERSON, MARS HILL CHURCH: You see literally dozens and dozens of people during the service writing pound MHC. And you can search that on Twitter and just see everything that are people's thought, their ideas.

LOCKLAND PAYNE (ph): We're a little bit behind where America isn't a lot fo things.

FELDMAN: Lockland Payne is from Australia and is spending a year visiting numerous churches around the states. He enjoys being able to Twitter his religious experience with far-away friends and says church etiquette hasn't disappeared. It's just evolved.

PAYNE: I'm an iron man. About ten, fifteen years ago, you couldn't wear a hat in church. And now you get out your mobile phones and your iphones and you can Twitter. So these things change and, yes, we've got to move with the times.

FELDMAN: An evolution that's moving forward one tweet at a time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: One tweet at a time.

Well, many of you broadcast your daily comings and goings on websites like FaceBook and Twitter. So why not share your energy use as well? Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York.

And, Poppy, we were just saying-- was talking to someone here --- this Twitter is just getting out of control. This is just -- it's too much.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I have to get into this Twitter thing because I don't use it. But a lot of people do. They talk about their energy use. And, T.J., do you know how much energy you use in a day?

HOLMES: I haven't a clue.

HARLOW: Neither do I. But there is a way to measure it. There's also a way for your friends to hold you accountable if you are indeed a power hog. I know you're not, T.J., but in case you are.

HOLMES: No.

HARLOW: What we did a few weeks ago, we visited the second annual Greener Gadgets competition right here in New York. This little gadget, this thing, took first place. It is a Tweet-o-watt. The designers say it's easy to make at home. It's cheap too. They did not patent it so that everyone can make it. What they did id they bought just a power meter from a store, they broke it open and they put a little wireless device right in there. That allows to you tweak to your friends how much energy you are using so they can really hold you accountable. This is the designer's page where they talk every day. Right now they're using 346 watts of power. And that's pretty average for people that work from home. We spoke to them about the device. Take a listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP TORRONE, DESIGNER, TWEET-A-WATT: Much like deciding to join a gym. Like as soon as you see your like hot friend get off the treadmill, you're like, you know what, like I want to lose some weight and fit into my clothes again. So I think that's kind of what happened. I think people are like, I want to kind of trim down my energy usage.

JILL FEHRENBACHER, CO-FOUNDER, GREENER GADGETS CONFERENCE: It's not just about you seeing your impact, it's about everyone you know seeing the energy consumption that you have. So there's this whole factor of guilt involved with it as well, or shaming you into doing the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. The designers put the instructions at home, if you want to try it out. I think it's about -- under $100 if you want to make it yourself. You can go to this website right at the bottom of your screen, adafruit.com/tweetawatt.

That's what I'm going to be doing Saturday night, T.J. What about you?

HOLMES: Yes, I can't wait. I got nothing going on. That sounds like a great Saturday night.

But, Poppy, you said that won first place. I can't wait to see what second place was to the Tweet-a-watt.

HARLOW: Second place was very cool. Some of our producers were rooting for it to come in first place. This was something called the Power Hog. We're going to show you some video here. The device helps kids visualize how much energy, how much electricity that they are using. You literally plug your TV or your iPod into the pig's snout right there. The tail goes into the wall. And then it tells you how much you're using. You can also drop a coin in and that gives you 30 minutes of electricity used for every coin you drop in. So you have to pay for your energy. Trying to teach kids just how much they use. The inventors of that still trying to find a partner to help them bring it to market.

But pretty cool gadgets that we did see there, T.J.

HOLMES: And what's that one called again?

HARLOW: That's Power Hog.

HOLMES: The Power Hog and the Tweet-a-watt.

HARLOW: Yes.

HOLMES: All right. Well, Poppy, can't wait to see you come back with new names for new gadgets. You know, it's good stuff.

Poppy Harlow, always a pleasure. Thank you so much.

And as you see there, we like to keep up with all the latest trends here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Well, one of the latest trends to tell you about now involves throwing a house party. And what happens at this party, everybody shows up with a bag of gold. And then everybody leaves with pockets full of cash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, it's a new era in house parties. The neighbors arrive with bags of gold. They walk out clutching cold, hard cash. Our affiliate here out of North Carolina at WRAL shows us how they're turning bangles into bucks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From necklaces to rings, and everything in between . . .

KELLY SULLIVAN: Most of it is from my grandmother. She used to buy it on, I think, the Home Shopping Network.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kathy Sullivan says her old gold jewelry was just collecting dust. So when she heard she could sell it at her neighbor's gold party, she rushed over.

TERRI BRINTON, HOSTESS: Everybody's having fun. It's like Vegas in here. It's like, oh, she just got you $100!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think Tupperware parties with gold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll write you a check.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But instead of buying something, you get paid for your unwanted jewelry.

NEVA ECKLEY, SELLING GOLD: $518. I was just totally shocked. I mean, I don't know, I thought $100, $200, whatever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But is this really a golden opportunity? We brought our own gold to find out.

So here are some blasts from the past.

After being tested to make sure it's the real thing, the rep tells me its worth -- $327.96.

For comparison, we brought our gold to this local pawn shop. They offered up nearly $50 more.

But that's nothing compared to what gold is selling for on the open market. At today's prices, this gold would sell for about $930. The gold rep says they buy the gold for less because they have to pay to have it melted down and resold. But, the gold at this party does good. A portion of the proceeds goes to a charity of the host's choice.

ECKLEY, SELLING GOLD: It was difficult because it was sentimental, you know. And then I thought, no, this is going for a worthy cause.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For these guests, that's worth its weight in gold.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Well, that's all for me, T.J. Holmes, sitting in today for Tony Harris. Now want to hand this thing off to the CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra Phillips.